Cain had been careful—painfully careful—taking every contingency into account and preparing for every possible danger he could foresee. Yet when one dealt with entities whose consciousness could surge through the Emptiness between universes, caution sometimes simply wasn't enough.
There were forces so far beyond divine comprehension that even the modules' power was not enough. And once you looked into the abyss, sometimes the abyss looked back—literally, in this case.
The moment Cain focused on the severed head's eyes, he felt every instinct within mind and soul erupt in alarm. A cold, ancient dread washed through him, a warning older than words, telling him he was in more danger than he had ever been in his entire life.
He tried to sever the link, to turn and run, but before he could take even a single step, an invisible force burst from the decapitated head. It leapt through the active [A.I. Chip Module], using the device's energy as a bridge, and struck him.
